Irish regulator finds it impossible to access $378M in seized Bitcoin

Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is facing a massive problem. They’ve been sitting on $378 million worth of Bitcoin, and they can’t touch it.

The cryptocurrency was seized back in 2019 from Clifton Collins, a drug dealer, but they’ve lost access to the funds.

The Bitcoin was held in 12 different wallets, and no one has the keys to get in.

Seized Bitcoin grows from $56M to $378M

When the Bitcoin was first confiscated, it was worth around $56 million. That’s still a huge amount of money, but nothing compared to the current value of $378 million.

Collins, who had been running a cannabis-growing operation, was ordered by Ireland’s High Court to hand over the funds under the Proceeds of Crime legislation.

This means that because the money came from illegal activities, it belonged to the state. But the CAB has been stuck hoping that technology will catch up and somehow help them break into the wallets.

Collins first invested in Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012. As BTC’s value grew, so did his stash. To protect it, he spread the coins across 12 virtual wallets.

He then recorded the access codes to these wallets on a document, which he hid inside a fishing rod case at one of his rented properties in Co Galway. 

But when Collins was arrested, he claimed that he never saw the fishing rod case again after a break-in at his home. There’s also a possibility that the document got lost during a property cleanout after his arrest. 

Whatever happened to it, the fact remains that the Bitcoins are locked up tight, and nobody can access it.

Drug bust leads to Bitcoin seizure

In 2017, Collins was arrested after a routine police patrol found cannabis in his car near Sally Gap in Co Wicklow.

The discovery led to a deeper investigation that showed that he had been operating a large-scale operation using three rented properties in Galway, Meath, and Longford.

At one of the properties, police found a cannabis crop worth about €400,000. After his arrest, Collins was sentenced to five years in prison for drug dealing.

In late 2020, he was forced to hand over assets worth €1.2 million to the state as part of a settlement. 

These assets included €1 million in Bitcoin that Collins still had access to, as well as a two-seater Gyro aircraft, a camper van, and a fishing boat.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has shared that CAB returned €8.6 million to the exchequer in 2023, the largest amount recovered in 15 years.